Item: Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams
Rating: 8
Author: Greg Golding

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Solarus uses Skype for Business for the most part in regards to instant messaging. All members of our organization have the program and we use it to communicate with each other instantly. It is most essential to the engineering team and they use it more than anyone else. Sometimes we use the group chat feature to get a message across quickly that needs consensus from other users.

Pros and Cons

Instant messaging with members of the organization
Integration with Outlook
Ability to quickly send photos, files, and information

Video chat option
Adding users can be a pain
Mobile application is annoying in terms of the chat history and order of latest chats. The app in general is quite cumbersome.

Return on Investment

Faster communication among technicians and managers.
Effectively reduce amount of time to solve customer issues.
Transfer essential information at high speeds.

Alternatives Considered

ShoreTel

We don't use the ShoreTel communicator app for our instant messaging because we think that the Skype for Business application is a better tool for our organization. We like the functionality and ability to integrate with our email system. We also think it is quite easy to use and is a good tool for our org.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is definitely a good product for a company who is looking to utilize instant messaging within their organization and has Outlook to integrate with it. It is best for a service organization who needs to be able to communicate internally often, fast and effectively. We are a service organization so it works very well for us.

Users and Roles

14 - Everyone in the organization has a Skype account. All functions of the business are covered in terms of people who use it. The people who use it most often are the engineering team who use it all day every day. They primarily use it to communicate among themselves. They will often create group chats to get things done quickly and efficiently.

Support Headcount Required

4 - We are managed IT services organization. We support and implement skype for business for our clients, and therefore manage to support the program internally without any problems. Every technician and engineer in the organization is somone that is able to support the program. We have no problem in terms of support.

Business Processes Supported

Communicating among the team
Getting answers to questions while on the phone with a client
instant contact from anywhere at anytime
updating status: where you are, what your doing
integrating with outlook

Innovative Uses

All conversations are recorded/pushed out to outlook into a folder
We use it to review old conversations to retrieve information/answers that may have been forgotten
We quickly order lunch together!

Future Planned Uses

We can utilize the video tool
We can communicate with CLIENTS

Likelihood to Renew

9

I know for a fact the owners of our organization really like the tool. I know that for some reason the product took some getting used to when it was first implemented. That said, I know that it is used all the time and has become an integral tool for the organization

Products Replaced

Not Sure

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I was not personally involved with the purchase evaluation of skype for business and therefore I can not accurately assess what changes I would have made to the selection process. I will say that the product is a excellent, integrates excellently with other essential tools, and has become an integral tool for the organization.

Implementation Rating

9

Skpe for business is utilized company wide in regards to my company. Everyone not only uses it, but uses it often. It is an effective way of communicating. It also integrates very nicely with outlook and all conversation history is pushed to a folder within the outlook system. We also have it so that if someone misses a message, they are sent an email reminder saying that there is a message that went unread.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled

Implementation Issues

It took some time for everyone to adjust and get used to the new way of communicating via IM
getting everyone to implement their own version on their mobile devices etc.
There were not many issues in regards to the implementation of Skype For Business

Support Rating

8

I have never heard any of the engineers or techs say that they have has any problems with skype for business in terms of support from the manufacturer. With that said I am going to say that there are not many issues and when there are, they are fixed rather quicky.

Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Bug Resolution

No

Usability

9

I find it very easy to use and easy to operate. It is definitely easy to get used to and from a user perspective is a solid product. I also find it to be very handy and useful for a small-mid-sized org like ours. It is easy to communicate effectively and get information quickly.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Instant messaging
setting up a conference chat
recording conversations

Difficult Tasks

mobile application
rder of conversations

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - I am personally not a fan of the mobile interface. That said, there is one and it does work for the basic needs of responding to someone and getting back to them with a quick message. It is essentially the same thing as a text message in that regard. I think it does need some work

Skype for Business Review

Overall Satisfaction with Skype for Business